Job Descriptions / Creative Director
Creative Director Job Description Template for Agencies
A ready-to-post creative director JD written for agencies: a role that owns craft, leads teams, wins pitches, and sells work to clients without losing the agency's creative soul.
What does a creative director do at an agency?
An agency creative director owns the creative bar. They set the vision, lead the team, and make the final call on what leaves the building. They pitch for new business, mentor designers and writers, and translate commercial reality into creative constraints the team can rally around.
Unlike brand-side creative leads, agency CDs move between categories, platforms, and briefs every week. The best ones have a point of view sharp enough to differentiate the agency and a listening ear soft enough to coach talent, hear strategy, and respect clients who are paying for the work.
Job description template
Job title
Creative Director (Agency)
Summary
We're hiring a Creative Director to lead creative across a group of our accounts and pitches. You'll own the vision, the quality bar, and the development of our art directors and writers, while partnering with strategy and account leads to sell and ship work we're proud of.
Responsibilities
- Set the creative vision and quality bar across all client work produced by the agency.
- Lead pitch creative and concept development on major new-business opportunities.
- Mentor and develop a team of art directors, designers, copywriters, and producers.
- Present creative work to senior client stakeholders and defend the thinking behind it.
- Translate client briefs and business goals into creative strategies the team can execute.
- Review and approve all major deliverables before they leave the agency.
- Partner with strategy, account, and delivery leads to scope creative work accurately.
- Hire, performance-manage, and succession-plan across the creative department.
- Champion the agency's brand voice, case studies, and creative reputation in the market.
- Stay ahead of craft, cultural, and platform trends that affect the work the agency produces.
Required qualifications
- 10+ years of creative experience, including 4+ years leading creative teams in an agency.
- A portfolio of integrated campaigns and brand work across multiple channels and verticals.
- Demonstrated ability to win new business through creative pitches and RFP responses.
- Experience managing direct reports at associate creative director or art director level.
- Strong point of view on craft, supported by examples of work you personally championed.
- Comfortable presenting to C-suite clients and defending creative decisions under pressure.
- Fluency in both brand and performance creative, or deep excellence in one with respect for the other.
Preferred qualifications
- Experience at both independent and network agencies.
- Awards recognition at Cannes, D&AD, The One Show, or equivalent industry bodies.
- Background in the agency's primary vertical or client category.
- Hands-on craft skill (design, copy, film) in addition to creative leadership.
- Experience with AI-assisted creative tooling and production pipelines.
Salary range
United States
- CD (8-12 yrs): $140,000 - $190,000 base
- Senior CD (12-15 yrs): $180,000 - $240,000 base
- ECD (15+ yrs): $220,000 - $350,000+ base + bonus
Sources: AIGA Design Salary Survey, Built In, Glassdoor (2025-2026).
Global
- UK: GBP 75,000 - 160,000
- EU: EUR 80,000 - 170,000
- Canada: CAD 130,000 - 220,000
- LATAM / remote: USD 60,000 - 140,000
Sources: Payscale, LinkedIn Salary, Major Players UK salary guide.
Top skills to look for
- Conceptual thinking and big-idea development
- Creative storytelling and narrative structure
- Team leadership and mentorship
- Client presentation and creative salesmanship
- Craft judgment across design, copy, and motion
- Strategic alignment of creative to business goals
- Production and delivery fluency
- Talent identification and hiring taste
Red flags
- Portfolio relies entirely on work done by others they managed, with no clear personal contribution.
- Cannot articulate a creative philosophy or point of view beyond generic craft talk.
- Has never lost a pitch and refuses to talk about one that went wrong.
- Describes their team in pronouns that suggest they see themselves as separate from them.
- Resists commercial conversations about scope, time, and cost as "not their job".
Interview process structure
Stage 1: Portfolio screen and intro call (45 min)
Review the portfolio with the candidate. Ask them to walk through two or three projects in depth: the brief, their contribution, the result. Screen for personal ownership vs team association.
Stage 2: Hiring panel with leadership (60 min)
Conversation with ECD, CEO, or head of creative. Explore creative philosophy, leadership approach, pitch track record, and views on the agency's positioning.
Stage 3: Creative exercise or pitch rehearsal (90-120 min)
Give them a disguised brief from a real pitch or client. Ask for a strategic angle and a single creative territory with rough executions. Evaluate thinking, presentation, and ability to sell.
Stage 4: Team and cross-functional panel (60-90 min)
Meeting with art directors, strategists, account, and production. Assess how they handle peer disagreement, give creative feedback, and talk about people they've managed.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a creative director and an executive creative director?
A creative director owns the creative output of specific accounts or a portfolio. An executive creative director (ECD) owns the creative vision across the agency, participates in new business, and manages other CDs. In smaller agencies the titles are often used interchangeably.
Should a creative director come from art or copy?
Either. Great CDs exist on both sides. What matters is respect for the discipline they didn't come from and fluency in the one they did. Avoid CDs who only trust work coming from their original craft.
Do creative directors need to be hands-on?
Depends on agency size. At boutique and mid-size shops, yes, at least at concept stage. At larger agencies, CDs spend more time in leadership, client, and pitch work, with associate CDs owning the craft day-to-day.
How do you evaluate a CD's portfolio fairly?
Ask for role-specific contribution on each project, the original brief, the first round that was killed, and the result. A CD's portfolio is as much about judgment as it is about the final frames.
Should creative directors own client relationships?
They should be client-facing on creative matters and pitch work, but the commercial relationship should stay with account leadership. CDs who try to own commercials tend to under-price their own work.
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